The invention concerns a spacer plate for a hollow floor, which spacer plate has distributed over its surface an array of spacer elements intended to supportingly engage an underfloor, as well as an array of holding elements for holding a pipe for a heating or cooling medium, with the spacer elements being formed as truncated cone-shaped protuberances extending away from one side of the plate.
One such spacer plate is for example known from EP 371268. In this known solution the spacer plate is made of a plastic foil in which the spacer elements are formed as deep drawn protuberances, while the holding elements are formed by clamping cogs, which likewise are formed by deep drawing from the side of the foil opposite to the protuberances. This has the result that the pipe held between the clamping cogs becomes almost entirely cast into the plaster of the upper floor, so that the heating medium transported by the pipe transmits its heat in large part to the plaster. The air which may possibly be moved through the underfloor can take on only little heat from the pipe or can take on such heat only with a relatively large time delay.
The invention has as its object the provision of a spacer plate of the aforementioned kind which when used in a hollow floor offers the possibility that the heating medium or cooling medium pipe or pipes held by the spacer plate can come into heat exchange with the upper floor as well as also with air moving through the hollow space between the upper floor and the lower floor.
This object is solved in accordance with the invention in that the holding elements are formed by grooves, which grooves are formed in the spacer plate so as to extend away from the same side of the spacer plate as the protrusions, which grooves surround at least half of the circumference of a pipe which is laid into the grooves.
In the case of the spacer plate of the invention, a heat or cooling medium conducting pipe extends with at least a half of its cross section into the hollow space formed by the spacer elements between the upper floor and the lower floor. Therefore, the pipe can have a heat exchanging effect both with the upper wall and also with air moving through the lower wall. This offers the possibility of relatively quickly changing the temperature of the room air by way of the air moving through the hollow floor, that is to warm or to cool, while a change in the room temperature by way of the change in the temperature of the upper floor is only achieved with a relatively large slowness.
The spacer plate can as in the known solution be made of a plastic foil or however can also be made of a metal sheet, whereby in both cases the protrusions and the grooves can be manufactured by deep drawing of the starting material. There exists a however also the possibility that the spacer plate can be manufactured of mineral material, for example, by molding.
Preferably the protrusions are arranged equidistantly in rows and columns, with the grooves extending column wise and row wise transversely over the protrusions, so that a rectangular groove network is provided for the setting of the pipe. To have a greater freedom in the setting of the pipe, it is advantageous if further grooves are provided which extend diagonally to the column and row wise oriented grooves.
To make possible a meanderingly shaped setting of the pipe, in accordance with the invention, between each four protrusions a circular shaped groove is formed which between each two protrusions coincides with the column wise and row wise grooves. Thereby reverse turn loops of a pipe can be laid on the spacer plate.
The invention concerns further a hollow floor with a spacer plate lying on an underfloor, on which spacer plate the pipes for a cooling or heating medium are arranged and which spacer plate carries an upper floor, with the spacer plate being formed in the previously described way.